Georgia WWII veteran, 100 years old, to receive French Legion of Honor

Other American recipients include Josephine Baker, the entertainer and French Resistance fighter; Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, the supreme allied commander in Europe during the war; and Eisenhower’s fellow U.S. military veterans who helped liberate France.

French Consul General in Atlanta Anne-Laure Desjonquères will present the medal to Kinder during a ceremony at the American Legion in Smyrna. Suspended by red silk ribbon, it features oak and laurel branches and a medallion representing the French Republic.

Kinder said he is honored by the recognition and will accept it on behalf of his unit, the 14th Field Artillery Observation Battalion. It was attached to Gen. George Patton Jr.’s Third Army during the war.

“I take it as a remembrance for our battalion,” Kinder said. “It means so much to me now.”

Born in the Seattle area, Kinder was the oldest of two children. His father helped run a sewer pipe manufacturing plant, while his mother raised Kinder and his younger sister at home.

At 18, Kinder was drafted. Before deploying, he completed military training at Camp Roberts, California, and Fort Lewis, Washington. Kinder landed on Utah Beach on Aug. 17, 1944, more than two months after D-Day.

He still has vivid memories of what he saw as his unit advanced. The roads were clogged with German prisoners of war heading west and allied tanks, bicycles and horse-drawn wagons heading east. Civilians generously welcomed the American soldiers with wine and schnapps.

Occasionally, Kinder witnessed retribution, even executions.

“We saw the results of one hanging and one shooting,” he added. “I am sure it was deserved.”

Trained to detect enemy artillery positions with microphone technology, Kinder’s unit worked close to the front lines. Focusing on his job, he said, helped him compartmentalize during combat.

The fighting intensified starting in December of 1944, when the Germans desperately fought to push the allies back during the Battle of the Bulge. Kinder remembers seeing the bodies of many American troops who had frozen to death or been killed amid the fighting.

“A few months ago, I couldn’t talk about it. Now, I’m inured to it,” he said, adding the kind welcome he received in Normandy last year helped make it easier for him.

Kinder also remembers the day he narrowly survived an enemy attack. He was on his way to the Battle of the Bulge when he and some fellow soldiers took shelter from the bitter cold in a three-story house north of Luxembourg City. Kinder was leaning over to untie his shoes when a German shell struck the house. It killed some of his fellow troops in the attic. Kinder came to with a mattress on top of him.

Today, Kinder wonders if he experienced shock or was concussed because he can’t remember much of what happened in the few days after the explosion. He hopes returning to Luxembourg, the Ardennes Forest and Bastogne in June will help fill gaps in his memory. Along with other WWII veterans from Illinois, Pennsylvania and Tennessee, Kinder is making the trip with the help of a charitable nonprofit called Forever Young Veterans.

After the war, Kinder graduated from college and married. He and his late wife, Vaida, raised two daughters. Kinder worked as a ceramic engineer, a career that first brought him to Georgia in 1957. After that, he moved elsewhere to work in other parts of the United States. Eventually, he started a tiling business, working until he was 83. He returned to Georgia in 2010 to retire.

Speaking recently at his retirement community, Kinder reflected on his mortality. He made it to 100, he said, because of luck. He added that he wants to continue living at least until Independence Day.

Meanwhile, he worries. Kinder circumspectly referred to America’s political polarization and the state of its international alliances.

“Our relationship with so many countries now has suddenly turned sour. I feel so bad about that,” he said. “World War II, unfortunately, was the highlight of our unification around the world. Now, we are blowing it to some extent.”

Considerate and discreet, he was reluctant to elaborate. But he said he hopes it won’t take another war to bring people back together. The French government recognition he will receive this Saturday, he added, is a hopeful sign.